Stunning photos from Giliell. Love, love, love that second shot. Click for full size.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Stunning photos from Giliell. Love, love, love that second shot. Click for full size.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Adorable Terns, from Ice Swimmer. Click for full size.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.
Courtesy LandofDakota.com
Cannonball Ranch, which is full of sacred burial sites and artifacts, was sold on September 22 to Dakota Access LLC.
No words. None. Okay, a few. If the owners, who reside in Flasher, were all that concerned about liability, why didn’t they offer the land for sale to Standing Rock? I smell shit. A whole lot of bullshit.
Cannonball Ranch in North Dakota has been sold to Dakota Access LLC. The ranch is not the site of the Standing Rock Camp where protectors are taking a stand against the Dakota Access pipeline, but the ranch has hundreds of burials and artifacts.
MyNDNow reports the land was sold by David and Brenda Meyer on September 22 for liability reasons. David Meyer told MyNDNow that there were just too many people on the property.
“It’s a beautiful ranch, but I just wanted out,” he said.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II made a statement at the Protecting Native Land and Resources, Rejecting North Dakota Pipeline Forum:
“Recently, they purchased the Cannonball Ranch, yesterday the transaction was final, the documents are signed and recorded with the county and the money was transferred. So the owner of the Cannonball Ranch, where we’re demonstrating, what we’re protecting, has now been sold to the pipeline company so it’s really disturbing to me because the intention is all wrong. Without having any further review and without understanding what the process was… it’s not fair. It’s not right and the company is going to try to move forward without any consideration of tribes. I am not asking that you stop this pipeline, I’m asking that you do a full EIS [Environmental Impact Statement].”
Read his full statement on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Facebook page.
On the same day as the Cannonball Ranch sale, more than 1,200 archaeologists and museums sent a letter to President Barack Obama, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging a full Environmental Impact Statement be completed as well as a survey of cultural resources along the pipeline’s route.
“The destruction of these sacred sites adds yet another injury to the Lakota, Dakota, and other Indigenous Peoples who bear the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and transportation. If constructed, this pipeline will continue to encourage oil consumption that causes climate change, all the while harming those populations who contributed little to this crisis,” reads part of the letter.
Via ICTMN. See comments for additional info.
Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. (right) swears Felipe Reyna in as an Associate Justice of the 10th Court of Appeals in January 2004. (Baylor University).
Appointed to the Western District of Texas by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, Walter S. Smith Jr. quickly developed a reputation as one of Texas’ harshest federal judges. People who worked with him knew he had a temper.
That’s what a former clerk in Smith’s Waco office says she had in mind when he forced himself on her in the late 1990s. After harassing the woman at work one morning, Smith called her into his office, wrapped his arms around her and shoved his tongue down her throat as he pressed his erection into her, according to a deposition the woman gave in 2014. He tried to direct her toward the couch even as she pulled away and kept saying no.
“I just panicked, and all I thought about was his anger, you know,” the woman testified. “And I was like how am I going to get out of here without making him angry.”
A panel of judges with the federal Fifth Circuit appeals court began investigating Smith after a Dallas lawyer named Ty Clevenger filed a complaint against the judge in 2014. Clevenger wants Congress to impeach Smith for his conduct toward women in his office. In late 2015, the Fifth Circuit judges didn’t recommend impeachment, but rather handed Smith the super serious punishment of barring him from hearing any new cases for a full year. They’ve also asked that the court’s so-called Judicial Council keep investigating Smith for allegations of additional sexual misconduct.
But as the Express-News first reported yesterday, Smith, 75, submitted his resignation to President Barack Obama last week. Which means that, as a retired federal judge, he’ll draw an annuity equal to his current salary of $203,100 per year – for the rest of his life.
There’s much more at the linked article, be warned, there is a great deal of detail about the sexual abuse and harassment. Too little happened to this horrible excuse of a human being, and now, he’s managed to put himself in the cosy position of receiving a great deal of money every year until he dies. Perhaps that won’t be long, given his age, but whether he lives one year or twenty more years, this is a slap in our collective faces of just how rotten the system happens to be. This man has seen little punishment for what he put his co-worker through, and now he gets to be rewarded by a guaranteed golden salary. Saying serious reform is needed is a serious understatement.
Full story at San Antonio Current. Content Note: extensive detail of sexual abuse and harassment.
Official signs are cropping up across the city, with four of Toronto’s major streets now bearing signs with their Anishinaabe names. Spadina, or Ishpadinaa, is one of them. (Craig Chivers/CBC).
Toronto is joining a number of other places as far as street signs go, adding the language of the original inhabitants of the land.
“By doing this, it shows that the First Nations people are still here. We’re still on their land. We share it but we’re still on their land,” Grant said.
That’s the problem though, isn’t it, that all the colonial people are still on their land, dominating that land, and dominating the original inhabitants, and not in good ways. While I have been in favour of various street sign initiatives, I think they have little impact on on non-Native people. Oh, they might ooh and aah for a moment or three, and then it’s ignored and forgotten.
Indian Country Today reported on this effort in Toronto back in July of 2013:
MAD (taken from the Danish word for “food”) is a not-for-profit organization that works to expand knowledge of food to make every meal a better meal; not just at restaurants, but every meal cooked and served. Good cooking and a healthy environment can and should go hand-in-hand, and the quest for a better meal can leave the world a better place than we found it. MAD is committed to producing and sharing this knowledge and to taking promising ideas from theory to practice.
MAD is a great place to lose yourself for ages on end. Food, food, food, but not all the regular ways food is addressed. Here, there is the breathtaking culture of food, from all over the world, the history of food, the art of food, traditions of food, innovations and artistry of food. Any curiosity you may have about food, you can find satisfaction at MAD. I’ve been trying to catch up, reading at the site for the past month or so, and I’ve barely made a dent. Two articles in particular got my attention in recent days: Turning Trash Into Delicious Things: a Brief Guide by Arielle Johnson, and A People’s History of Carolina Rice, by Michael Twitty.
The first article grabbed my attention because it addresses the waste of craft brewers, and that particular waste happens in my household, as Rick is a home brewer:
On an artisanal-industrial scale, spent grains—the malted barley that is steeped in water to make beer—is a major source of waste for craft brewers, with (roughly) 8 kilos of leftover barley for every 50 liters of finished beer. It can be used as animal fodder, but you can go beyond that, since it also presents creative flavor opportunities.
That waste, it turns out, can be used to make koji, which in turn can be used to make a form of miso. Click on over to the article for details, and recipes! The article on Carolina rice was eye-opening, and details the history of this rice from 3500 B.C.E. to 2013. There’s personal history in this overview of one food:
1770s: My great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother is captured in a war in Sierra Leone and brought to Charleston, without a doubt to grow and mill rice on a Lowcountry plantation. She is a member of the Mende people, who would later lead the Amistad slave ship revolt in 1839.
[…]
1835: My great-great-great grandmother, Hettie Esther Haynes, is born and is later sold out of South Carolina, away from her mother Nora, into the cotton country of Alabama during the largest forced migration in American history—the domestic slave trade. Thousands of Gullah-Geechee will know this fate as rice cultivation faces competition from other countries and slaveholders are forced to reduce the number of bondspeople.
Now I’m going to read about The Carbon Footprint of Eating Out, A War Zone Cuisine, and Culture of the Kitchen: Cooks Weigh In.
Have a wondrous wander through the fields of MAD, it’s a journey you won’t regret.
We bring roses, beautiful fresh roses,
Dewy as the morning and colored like the dawn.
– Thomas Buchanan Read
Roses, from Giliell. Click for full size.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Geese, wonderful Canadian Geese. They are always a welcome sound and sight, no matter whether they are coming or going. From Kengi, who notes: Once on the lake, one of them decided to conduct the horn section for a serenade. Click for full size.
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
I had begged Kengi for some bird shots, because unless I go digging in files, I’m out for the moment, I haven’t had time to dinosaur watch. Kengi gracefully obliged, starting with photos of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and you should have seen my jaw drop, amazing captures! Click for full size.
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
Some of America’s biggest stars — including actors Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson — appear in a short video, taking potshots at Donald Trump while rallying voters to the polls on election day.
[…]
Save the Day was founded by Joss Whedon, director of two installments of the hit “The Avengers” films, among other works.
Via Raw Story.
Reynier Miranda at his home in Southwest Miami-Dade on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. (Photo: Roberto Koltun [email protected]).
MIAMI — Raynier Miranda had committed no crime. He was no threat. And he was in the hallway of his building when he was shot by a cop — who had no idea she’d shot him.
Now the South Miami-Dade maintenance worker is recovering at home after surgery and Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Wanda Roman has been suspended.
Last week, the South Miami-Dade maintenance worker was cleaning the hallway at the West Kendall apartment complex where he also lives. At the same time, Roman was inside her apartment cleaning her revolver. The gun went off.
The bullet went through the front door and struck the unsuspecting cleaning man. It wasn’t until he reached the hospital that Miranda learned he’d been shot — the bullet piercing the aortic artery in his left arm and passing through his chest half an inch from his heart.
“I had no idea what happened. I didn’t see anybody around. I had no idea,” Miranda said Thursday, speaking in Spanish. “I was bleeding. I saw a lady coming and I started yelling for help.”
Miami-Dade police had little to say about the shooting, calling it an open investigation. They did say Roman is a 10-year veteran and has been suspended with pay pending a criminal investigation into the shooting. Her personnel file wasn’t available Thursday.
A source familiar with the investigation, however, said Roman wasn’t suspended because of the accidental discharge. She was relieved of duty because she delayed telling her supervisor that her gun went off. That happened, the source said, because Roman had no idea Miranda had been shot until the incident was investigated.
Okay, hands up, who believes this load of nonsense? An open investigation. I should hope so. Cops are supposed to be trained in weapons safety. Pretty sure that includes unloading any ammunition prior to cleaning, buuuut that’s not what gets Ms. Roman in trouble, no. And she delayed mentioning this (translation: wasn’t going to say anything about it at all) because she had no idea she shot someone. Let’s see, if I’m cleaning a loaded weapon, and if that weapon fires, I can hear and see that happening. Pretty sure I’d notice a hole in my door, too. Not being a complete asshole, I’d rush to the door to make sure there wasn’t anyone in the hall at that time, because my first thoughts would be along the lines of “oh fuck, please don’t let anyone be outside, please don’t let anyone be outside, oh gods, what if I killed someone?” We’re expected to believe she just carried on, with no curiosity whatsoever about shooting through her door? This sounds like an episode of Keystone Kops.
The bullet that hit Miranda passed through his body and came out his back. He underwent surgery to close the artery in his arm and is now recovering at home. A sling holds up his left arm. Stitches run through his chest.
[…]
Married and the father of a 2-year-old, Miranda has been working at the apartment complex where he lives for three years. He moved to Miami from Cuba about five years ago. He has no plans to move because of the Sept. 15 incident and said he intends on returning to work after he recovers.
Miranda said he only knows Roman from exchanging pleasantries when they pass in the hallway. He said Roman hasn’t spoken with him since the shooting. If she did, Miranda said, he wouldn’t know what to say.
“I’m very frustrated. She’s caused me a lot of frustration,” he said. “It was very bad. I was in a lot of pain.”
Not even a “Oh hey, so sorry I almost killed you.” Apparently, Ms. Roman either does not care in the least, or is the most oblivious, unthinking, and uninquisitive person on the planet. If I had come that close to killing a young man, leaving his partner and child alone, I’d be crushed by guilt, sorrow, and regret. A terrific example of those who are supposed to protect and serve. At the very least, I hope to hell someone took Ms. Roman’s gun[s] away.
Via Raw Story.
Most people are familiar with my work, so will readily understand my attraction to this particular piece of art examination, a microscopic look at the Triumph of Bacchus tapestry.
Triumph of Bacchus, design overseen by Raphael, ca. 1518-19; design and cartoon by Giovanni da Udine. Brussels, workshop of Frans Geubels, ca 1560. Paris, Mobilier National, inv. GMTT 1/3. Image © Le.
This photomicrograph shows the warp and weft threads used to create a background detail in the Triumph of Bacchus tapestry.
The horizontal threads are the undyed wool warps that are the backbone of the underlying weave structure to the tapestry.
The decorative vertical threads include both crimson colored silk wefts as well as precious metal weft threads.
The Metal threads are made of very thin strips of gilt silver wrapped around yellow dyed silk.
How exactly was the gilding of tapestries done in the 16th century? These microscopic images reveal all.
These images show the warp and weft threads used to create a background detail in the Triumph of Bacchus tapestry recently exhibited in “Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV.”
Viewed from a distance (like when the tapestry is hanging high up on a wall), the combo of the crimson silk with the gold threads looks like a bright copper, and here we can see all the separate colors and textures that build up that look.
Detail from the Triumph of Bacchus Tapestry. It was woven with wool, silk and metal threads.
The Getty has a fascinating tumblr, Art Under the Microscope, examining all manner of art in microphotographs.
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby (Photo: Tulsa PD).
The white Tulsa police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man was charged with manslaughter on Thursday and a warrant has been issued for her arrest, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler said.
Officer Betty Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter for the death of Terence Crutcher, 40. The incident, captured on widely broadcast police videos, is one in a series that has raised questions of racial bias in U.S. policing.
“Although she is charged, she is presumed innocent until a judge or jury determines otherwise,” Kunzweiler said. “I don’t know why things happen in this world the way they do.”
Manslaughter? Really? How about 1st degree murder? “I don’t know why things happen in this world the way they do.” Oh for fuck’s sake! What kind of grade A idiot says something like that? A man was murdered for no reason at all by yet another cop out of control, and with a head stuffed full of stereotypical bigotry. We aren’t talking about some great mystery here, or an unexplained phenomenon. This is an all too regular occurrence, a cop murdering a person of colour. Depressingly fucking normal and typical. Don’t even start with such utter isht, making this out to be something remarkable. The only remarkable thing about this case is that it’s not in the least remarkable.
A lawyer for Shelby has said she acted because she feared for her life, believing Crutcher was reaching into his vehicle for a weapon during the encounter, which took place last Friday.
Yet another cop pleading scaredy-pants. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m sick of this. If you are so scared, you need to be stripped of your weapons and ersatz authority, stat. Find another job. Shelby’s partner had his taser out and armed. And her excuse for gunning Mr. Crutcher down? “I was scared.” This disgusting excuse must not be accepted, in any way whatsoever. Cops have all manner of weaponry besides their damn gun. How about they use it, instead of us getting to hear about yet another person of colour being murdered by cops? Instead of hearing about yet another family devastated by trauma and grief?
This constant narrative of cops having such an incredibly dangerous job has to stop. Policing doesn’t even make the top 10 in a list of most dangerous jobs. Lumberjack, deep sea fisherman, bush pilot, miner, personal transport driver, sanitation worker, search and rescue, welder and metal worker, mechanic, electrician, roofer, and firefighter are all dangerous jobs, and all of them are more dangerous than being a cop. That’s not to say that there’s no danger or risk in policing, of course there is, however, it’s not up to what is always claimed, either. This narrative of constant, extreme danger is mostly swallowed whole by cops themselves, and it whips them up into a froth of fear and deep paranoia, which amplifies implicit bigotry, and you get “scared, so I gunned them down.”
Tulsa police have said Crutcher was unarmed and there was no weapon in the vehicle. In a bid for transparency, they released the videos, one of which was taken from a police helicopter and the other from a dashboard camera in a patrol car.
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a separate investigation to see if the officers on the scene violated Crutcher’s civil rights.
:Chokes: Violated Mr. Crutcher’s civil rights? Is not being murdered in cold blood a violation of his rights? You have to check around to see if he was violated? Christ. This day, I seriously hate this damned country. (Yes, I know this can be used for additional charges. That does not take the inanity of it away.)
Via Raw Story.